Shuhei Yoshida: The PS4’s 8GB of RAM is “Way More Than Game Developers Need Initially”

June 27, 2013
Written by Jason Dunning

Unlike Kaz Hirai, who doesn’t have a Twitter account (just a parody one created by a fan), Shuhei Yoshida, President of Sony Worldwide Studios, has one and uses it regularly to interact with fans and the media alike. Of course, Shuhei also does good ol’ fashioned interviews with the media, including this one he did with GI.Biz.

After calling out the fact that this console generation “has been the longest” and “in older times we would have launched a new system already,” he made mention of how the PlayStation 3 now “is way, way better than the PS3 that came out in 2007 [2006 in US].” This is thanks to all the content and updates they’ve added over the years, either through new firmware or the PS Store.

Looking at the PlayStation 4, Shuhei said this improvement “will be the same” and they “already have plans on the roadmap for additional features and improvements on the services side which will constantly evolve with time.” What’s going to make this easier is the 8GB of RAM on the PS4, “which is way more than game developers need initially.”

This is an opposite of the PlayStation 3, where they “really hit the limit of what we can add in terms of system features” at the mid-point of the lifecycle. Due to the lack of memory on PS3, it’s what prevented them from later adding cross-game chat, but with the 8GB on PS4, “we can secure enough room for whatever great features developers can come up with.”

Do you think the PS4 and Xbox One generation will last as long as the PS3 and Xbox 360 one? Let us know in the comments below.